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Hines Ward goes deep and crushes Bruce Arians

Collinsworth spoke of a 'rumor' that the Steelers thought Bruce and Ben were "too close" and that it led to the move at coordinator. He asked Hines, "Do you buy into that?"

Hines answered with surprising candor: "Well, sometimes I think when you get so close, partiality sets it, and you don't know if Bruce Arians is doing what's best for the Steelers or if he's doing what's best for Ben Roethlisberger. And I think that set in. And they had to part ways, because when you go out there and you can't decide what's best for the team, and you're doing what's best for the player, sometimes it can be a problem."

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Dec 2008

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41

I didn't see this last night but it's good info to know. I'll never forget the draft the year after Ben's rookie season when reporters asked Cowher what Ben thought of the draft choices and Bill replied with a simple: "Look, I don't know and I don't care"

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Sep 2008

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5,440

If anyone cared to look the Steelers scoring offense has improved by almost 3 pts per game, moving them from 21st ranked scoring offense in 2011 to 18th this season so far. And this is supposedly with an entirely new offense, and new offensive playcalling.
Haley's imprint on this offense is unmistakeable already this early in the season. He has made Heath Miller the all-pro he should have been since his first season. I think he has Ben thinking differently in progressions. Haley is exactly what Ben needed to become the force that he has become. Nobody in the NFL is better on 3rd downs, converting on nearly 2 out of 3, and these are no gimmees either with many of them going for 10 yds or more.
Still there is much room for improvement, primarily putting more TDs on the board instead of field goals. It really hurts when they do not have a run game that defenses have to fear in the red zone.

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Jul 2010

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Originally Posted by Hines Ward

Well, sometimes I think when you get so close, partiality sets it, and you don't know if Bruce Arians is doing what's best for the Steelers or if he's doing what's best for Ben Roethlisberger. And I think that set in. And they had to part ways, because when you go out there and you can't decide what's best for the team, and you're doing what's best for the player, sometimes it can be a problem."

I think Hines is on the track but missed. I don't think the issue was that Arians couldn't separate what's best for Ben vs. what's best for the team. They're not mutually exclusive. If you do what's best for Ben, you're not hurting the team.

I think the issue is that Arians allowed Ben too much freedom to do what he wanted. THAT was getting Ben killed and it wasn't resulting in enough points being scored. The issue is that Arians' close friendship with Ben was clouding his judgment and was keeping him from doing what's best for Ben AND what's best for the team.